By Fred Martel

Are you a productive person? Do you have employees who could be more productive?

If your business plan includes doing what you did last year for marketing and advertising, well, that’s not a plan. Ringing in the New Year with a new plan creates impetus for improvements in the way you live and do business. Change is good.

A good business plan also includes a marketing strategy – a blue print you follow to get the most good publicity and exposure from your every move. This factor is widely overlooked in all levels of business in our industry, from contracting to wholesale to manufacturing. Continued growth depends on it. A well planned and executed advertising program with image-building consistency is the foundation for the sales effort. Without a marketing program you are selling boxes and service without a brand to wrap around the package.

Your ideal goal is to get each and every customer to get excited about the job your company performed for them. How, you may ask, does that happen? The answer is perceived value, i.e. customers get more than they expected for the price. In order to achieve this goal you must take into account the marketing factor. It’s okay to charge high prices, as long as you can show value for the price! You must be among – if not the best.

You have to look and feel expensive in order to get those prices – and stay in business. Your reputation must develop as one that can deliver the best for the price consistently. Image building is a big part of the marketing plan and it has to be adjusted on a regular basis.

Your advertising program requires frequency along with a consistent message. Your brand, i.e. your company, needs a fresh look periodically or you get boring and overlooked.
For all of these reasons, last year’s plan is an old hat and needs to be refreshed.